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VANCOUVER -- The head of the Portland Hotel Society says he is surprised to hear the provincial minister responsible for housing state the organization could be put into receivership after an independent audit raised concerns.

On Tuesday, Minister Rich Coleman told reporters an independent audit of PHS’s accounting raised problems and said receivership is an option for the non-profit society, which provides social housing and support for people with mental illnesses and addictions. Coleman said the results of the audit by accounting firm Deloitte would soon be made public.

Meanwhile, PHS executive director Mark Townsend said auditors raised no major concerns in a January meeting and that his organization is committed to working with BC Housing, which funds PHS with about $9 million for 17 housing and service contracts. (BC Housing pays about $310 million to more than 800 non-profit housing providers that oversee about 60,000 units of subsidized housing.)

“We feel that we deliver an efficient service; we’re obsessed with making it cost effective,” Townsend said, adding that PHS charges a total management fee of 9.1 per cent for its work.

Last fall, BC Housing reviewed the way PHS accounts for the money it receives and decided to bring in accounting firm Deloitte to audit its books.

When the auditing was announced, Townsend told The Sun that BC Housing disagrees with the way PHS consolidates the various project management fees it receives into a central pot, which it then uses to pay for other services or education and advocacy programs. Some of that money has been used for advocacy, including opposition to some BC Housing policies like shutting down shelters.

PHS has funding sources separate from BC Housing to operate controversial harm-reduction programs like its 25-cent crack pipe dispenser and its U-brew project for severe alcoholics. Its InSite supervised safe-injection program is run in conjunction with Vancouver Coastal Health.

On Tuesday, Townsend said things like providing Narcan in social housing units with addicted residents makes sense.

“There’s stuff that crosses the very simple kind of lines of health and housing - we’re in the real world, so we need to be practical about that.”

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